Clipper fleet approaching final pit stop

by Helena Broadribb on 27 Jul 2006 Yesterday’s changes in wind strength and direction both helped and hindered the Clipper fleet. After a frustrating night spent drifting slowly across the channel, the breeze increased, but the direction turned to the north west, exactly the direction they needed to go in. Hopefully by the time the boats head up towards the Irish sea they should have reasonable reaching conditions to push them up towards Holyhead.

The arrival time in Holyhead was scheduled for Thursday evening, however the main purpose of stopping there is to muster the fleet for the final sprint to Liverpool. The exact time of arrival is therefore much less relevant and a likely ETA sometime in the early hours of Friday morning will still achieve the desired result – a few hours to freshen up before the final battle.

The interesting thing about sailing in UK waters is that tide is much more important, far more so than current. As the tide floods to the east and ebbs to the west, this is no more important than at headlands, where tidal “gates” are formed. What this means is that as the tide flows around a headland quite strong local flow can occur, and in light winds the difference of an hour or two in arrival time at the headland can mean the difference between having 2 knots of favourable tide and two knots of foul tide.

At Land’s End, the western tip of mainland Britain, this is quite marked. If you get it right you have the westbound ebb tide helping you get there from the east, and as you round it, if the gods of the sea are kind to you, you pick up the flood tide going north eastward up along the north coast of Cornwall. Looking at the fleet it seems that Cardiff, Jersey and Victoria had this gate shut on them overnight. Their southerly tack yesterday evening did not pay off. Glasgow is sitting on the gate, but the others are through to the very south eastern part of the Celtic Sea.

The various battles through the fleet are hotting up. westernaustralia.com has sneaked a mile or so ahead of Durban, and Mark Preedy and his crew will be covering furiously, in other words trying to keep themselves between Durban and the finish. Just so long as they stay next to Durban in this race, be it a place ahead or a place behind, they win overall, so they will not want Durban to be out of sight. New York has dropped a couple of places behind Liverpool, and they will not want this to continue as Liverpool is five points behind them overall. Jersey will not want Glasgow to get much further ahead, as they are only two and a half points in front of the Scots overall, and cannot afford to lose more than two places to them. Victoria’s point and a half lead over Uniquely Singapore is under serious threat now, with Victoria still to pass Land’s End. Likewise, Qingdao’s three point advantage over Cardiff is being held for the moment.


Race 12 Positions (Last Report 0400 27/07/06)

1. Liverpool 08

1. Western Australia

3. Durban

4. New York

5. Singapore

5. Qingdao

7. Glasgow

8. Jersey

9. Cardiff

10. Victoria